Review: TOWN, Covent Garden

I’d say TOWN is a pretty good candidate for meal of the year already. Combination of superb food, lovely setting and really excellent service. The interior is wonderful, lots of clean curves giving something of a 60’s modernist retro vibe but with all the furnishing and other decor carrying a burgundy and baked earth colour scheme that felt sharply contemporary and very comfortable. The wine list is moderate in length with most of it around the £60-£120 mark, but there’s lots of good stuff on there and we spent quite a bit of time chatting with their sommelier; as friendly and approachable as everyone else front of house.

We ordered nibbles to start: fried sage leaves, sourdough, radishes and gildas. I love a fried sage leaf, but these were amped up to gorgeous with the addition of honey and chilli. The radishes were plump and perfect, and very moreish with a savoury miso sauce to dip in. I liked the British take on a gilda, using soused herring instead of anchovy and adding a cube of cucumber and a herby shiso leaf. Tasty bite.

For starter I picked the cured beef and was very happy, at first. The beef ate beautifully and had a real depth of flavour, served up with nicely dressed leaves and some dabs of savoury cheese goo. But next door Maureen had the day-boat crudo with tomato water, and this was a heavenly starter. So fragrant, the herb oil and tomato water together with little nips of grapefruit on top of the perfect slivers of fish. Divine. Very light, obviously, but that’s why you have snacks!

I was drawn to duck and amarone papardelle for main, if only because I don’t think I’ve ever had that rare and elaborate Italian red wine used in a sauce before! The pasta and the duck were both perfect, and the sauce also included flavours of cinnamon, chilli and juniper. Every flavour was clearly there, distinct, and working in harmony along with the crumble of smoked almond on top. Yum. Maureen’s pork loin had to do well to compete… and very much did, beautifully caramelised but pinkly juicy inside, packed with flavour from the crust to the fat. Served with some really zippy mustard and an outrageously good burnt apple sauce, as black as treacle and also excellent with potatoes. Because we ordered a side of their beef-fat roasted pink fir apple potatoes (special) and a plate of shoestring courgette fritti (also special).

They’ve got the portions just right (for me) so we had room for dessert. Which was good news because they served up an immensely lush chocolate tart with a scoop of black barley ice cream whose nutty flavour just went perfectly. Maureen’s mango and coconut ice cream on tapioca was a lighter but very flavoursome alternative.

We had a superlative dinner at Town, and it came to about £55 each including dessert. And before drinks. Which we drank a reasonably large amount of. I hope they’ve got their business plan just right, because I’d really love to be coming back to Town for many years to come.